pieces
by Ginneke and Heleentje
Summary: On March 28th, three days after the end of the school year, Hiiragi Yuzu disappears. On April 3rd, the Maiami Municipal Police Office contacts her father, claiming to have found her. Navigating the aftermath is more complicated than anyone expected, especially for the Hiiragis. [Includes spoilers up to Arc V 41]
1. conversation piece

**Missing**

柊柚子 [Hiiragi Yuzu]

Missing from: Central Maiami City

Date Missing: 28th March

Age: 13 | Gender: Female

Height: 147cm | Weight: 44kg | Build: Thin

Eyes: Blue | Hair: Ginger, strawberry-blonde highlights

Clothing &amp; accessories at time of disappearance:

Dark blue vest top, layered under loose-fitting, pale blue blouse. Light brown, mid-thigh skirt, worn over knee-length black biker shorts. Blue ankle socks. White trainers.

Silver bracelet, with single gem embellishment.

Last known movements:

Left You Show Duel School at 2:20pm. Was heading towards Leo Duel School for a duel scheduled at 3pm, never arrived at destination.

Is carrying a duel disk (green). Uses a Ritual Deck.

If you have information about Hiiragi Yuzu's whereabouts, please call ...


	2. puzzle pieces

_31 March_

It's been three days since Yuuya found the card.

Three days without a trace of Yuzu. Three days of Shuzou wearing himself thin with frantic worry. Three days of Yuuya hiding behind his goggles.

Yoko has lost track of how many times she's cleaned the house over the last three days, just as restless as everyone else but doing her best to hide it. But the main outlet for Yoko's restless, worried energy is denied to her. With Yuuya upstairs (supposedly) sleeping, and Shuzou on the couch, head drooping in exhaustion, she can't do anything that would disturb them.

Shuzou hasn't said a word since the local news station aired a fresh appeal earlier. He hasn't touched the papers surrounding him, either. The phone stays stubbornly silent. It's like nobody knows a thing about what happened that day. Or if they do, nobody's coming forward.

There's a book in her hands. Her eyes keep sliding off the words, unable to take them in. She's read this page five times now.

The doorbell chimes.

Yoko closes the book and places it on the arm of her chair. She's hurrying towards the door before Shuzou has even registered the sound. Who could it be at this time of night?

Please. Please let it be good news.

She expected one of the police officers assigned to Yuzu's case. She doesn't expect Akaba Himika to be standing on her doorstep, at 11pm, with no sign of any LDS personnel accompanying her. Yoko glances from her to the pavement, as if a second look would reveal a van or some security detail, but there's nobody else.

Then she realises how rude she must seem. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you, Akaba-san."

The businesswoman's eyes narrow and grow colder. "Just Himika shall do."

Yoko nods. "Himika-san," she says, partly for Shuzou's benefit; she can hear him shuffling through those papers in the front room. She steps to the side. "Please, come in," she says, taking the opportunity to glance at the pavement again when Himika moves past her into the house. She still sees nothing out of the ordinary, and that's what disturbs her. Did Himika come here alone? Why? She closes the door, still troubled, and follows Himika's footsteps to the front room.

Shuzou's papers are neatly stacked at one end of the coffee table, as is her book, and now he's awkwardly standing next to the couch, studying their unexpected guest. Both he and Himika look out of place. Shuzou is too tired and beaten-looking; Himika is too pristine. Yoko gestures for Shuzou to sit down, directs Himika towards the armchair, and joins Shuzou on the couch. A united front, she hopes, or as united as they can be.

The question bursts from Shuzou as soon as both women have settled: "Have you found anything?"

"Yes and no," Himika says, as though expecting such directness. It might be Yoko's imagination, but she sounds almost as tired as Yoko feels. "We are no closer to finding your daughter's exact whereabouts. We have, however, gained a better understanding of her last known movements from one of our own security cameras."

She pulls a tablet computer from her briefcase, and looks at them expectantly. After a pause – does he really want to see? does Yoko, for that matter? – Shuzou nods assent. Himika sets it up with deft, brisk movements, and presses the button for playback. Yuzu appears on the screen, tiny against the buildings around her. The shadow of the LDS building looms nearby. Yoko recognises the place; it's where Yuuya found Yuzu's card. Her throat burns as she watches how Yuzu stops running, suddenly, and takes two steps backwards, eyes fixed on a point they can't see. They watch how her head turns from side to side, her shoulders rising as though they're hackles; how she grabs, desperately, at her duel disk; how green light flares in preparation. Then the video abruptly freezes.

"Where's the rest of it," Shuzou demands. "That can't be all – _what happened to her_?"

Himika purses her lips and admits, in clipped frustration, "This is all we have. The feed was disabled."

"But you said that was an LDS camera," Yoko cuts in. "How..."

"How." The word sounds different when Himika says it. Darker. Menacing, almost. "The entire scenario was a sham. The duel between our students," she says, turning to Shuzou, "was not authorised by somebody with proper access clearances. I can only conclude that Hiiragi Yuzu was being targeted all along."

Yoko can't be hearing this right. She glances at Shuzou for backup, but he's still staring at the image of Yuzu and her activated duel disk, as if the video will start playing again if he only hopes hard enough, and doesn't seem to have heard a thing Himika has said.

Swallowing back what she'd very much _like_ to say, Yoko looks at Himika in direct challenge. "Somebody within LDS was responsible," she says. It's not a question. It doesn't need to be a question. Not when Akaba Himika travelled here alone. Not with the information she's just shared.

Himika's silence is all the confirmation Yoko needs.

She lets out a single curse, with the same fervour and precision as she'd once done on the Pro stages. It startles Shuzou out of his stupor, and he stares at her in wide-eyed, weary shock. Himika studies her appraisingly.

Well. She hadn't meant to lose her composure like that, but if it defuses some of the tension in the room then she can't complain. "I should check on Yuuya," she says. "Do you want tea, Himika-san? Shuzou?"

For a moment Shuzou looks ready to refuse, the way he's sidestepped every offer of food since she dragged him from that too-empty house, that first night after Yuzu's disappearance. But, with a shaky sigh, he accepts. Himika follows suit. Politeness is the last refuge they can cling to right now.

Yoko readies things in the kitchen, then slips upstairs while the kettle is boiling. The door to her son's bedroom is ajar. Yuuya's sat next to it in the hallway, in his pyjamas, goggles over his eyes as they have been for the last three days. He's so tired that he doesn't even react to the sound of her slippers on the laminate floor. How long has he been out here, trying to listen for information the adults aren't sharing? Yoko exhales shakily and kneels next to him. She won't cry. Not right now.

"Yuuya," she prompts. "Yuuya, it's time for bed."

He mumbles something that sounds like, "Mum?"

"Come on, bedtime," she says. He protests, saying something about the doorbell; Yoko stands resolute. "It's nothing bad," she tries to assure him (but it is, because this wasn't something random, it was deliberate, and who would want to abduct Yuzu-chan). "Somebody just wants to go over some details with us, okay?"

Yuuya seems to accept that, at least. Maybe he's just too tired to argue. Either way, he doesn't resist the guiding hand on his shoulder as she steers him back into his room. Core's eyes glitter at them from the foot of the bed.

It takes another five minutes for Yoko to return downstairs. Neither of the others comments on the damp patch on the shoulder of her pullover, or the red rimming her eyes. Tea. That's what she needs to do. Tea. Something to occupy her hands. Something to take her mind off everything.

When Yoko carries the mugs through, Shuzou is looking more alert than he has in hours. It's not a good alert. It's the sort of manic desperation of a duelist on the ropes. What did they talk about while she was upstairs? What words could have brought Shuzou to this?

She finds out sooner than she expected. "Earlier, you said something strange," he says. "That you don't know my daughter's _exact whereabouts_. Does that mean you have an idea of where she might be? If the culprit has ties to LDS, doesn't that mean you can track them?

There's a pause. "If I tell you what I know," says Himika, "you can never repeat it to anybody. For the safety of our world._"_

Yoko flounders for words. All she can do is repeat, dumbfounded, "Our _world_?"

Himika came here to talk about Yuzu-chan, right? How does one thirteen-year-old girl factor into the safety of an entire planet?

Shuzou places his mug on the table and leans forward, arms folded across his chest. His hands are shaking. Yoko has half a mind to order Akaba Himika out of her house, but the intense and desperate need on her friend's face makes her pause. "I have to know what happened to my daughter," he says. "Himika-san, _please_."

Himika stands, and crosses to the large glass window that looks out onto the garden. In a voice that sounds more at home in a conference hall than Yoko's front room, the businesswoman says, "There are other worlds beyond ours. We know of at least four. Our world is referred to as 'Standard'. Currently, the other three are known only by the names of 'Fusion', 'Synchro', and 'Xyz'-"

"Summoning methods?" Yoko interrupts, incredulous.

"I didn't name them," replies Himika, with a wry, exasperated note of – not humour, but something like it. "But yes. These worlds... no, _dimensions_ is a more accurate term. They are known by the same names as the three Extra Deck summoning methods. Two years ago, my son, Reiji, found a way into the Fusion dimension. In the short space of time he was there, somebody confirmed to him the existence of the other dimensions, 'Synchro' and 'Xyz'.

"There is an organisation in the Fusion dimension that calls itself Academia. They discovered Reiji, deported him back here, to Standard, and destroyed all known links between our two dimensions. Currently, we have no way of accessing, or even contacting, Academia and the Fusion dimension."

"What does any of this have to do with my daughter?"

Himika closes her eyes. When she opens them again, her face is once again a mask of perfect control. "Shortly after this," she says, "we found traces of old records within the LDS mainframe. From what little we understood, there were apparently four 'pieces', one from each dimension, that Academia was looking for. I had thought..." She grimaces and tries again. "I misunderstood the records. There were three words that stood out, from what information we could recover: 'bracelet', 'gem', 'power'. I thought they referred to physical objects, hidden in each world. Something that would take planning and effort to obtain. Something that could claim to justify the Academia's plans to invade and attack the Xyz dimension."

Invade? Attack? Yoko's throat burns. What does Yuzu have to do with this? "You're not saying..."

"The 'pieces' were not objects after all," Himika confirms. "Reiji realised, when he saw Hiiragi Yuzu's picture on the news, that she had the same face as a girl he encountered in the Fusion dimension. A girl named Selena. She was the person who told him about the Synchro and Xyz dimensions."

"The same face." Oh god, Shuzou.

"As if they were twins. Only their hair colour differs. And she had a bracelet. Silver. Embellished with a single gemstone."

It's too hard to believe. Only... Himika is too serious about this to be lying. What reason does she have to lie? She's still talking, about the possibility – no, probability of other girls, other lookalikes, identified by their bracelets; about the likelihood of all four being captured for – for whatever purpose; about things that seem so pointless next to the knowledge that Yuzu is beyond their reach.

Yoko looks away. Her gaze falls on a photo of Yushou and Yuuya, taken just a few months before Yushou disappeared. Is everyone going to disappear? First Yushou, now Yuzu-chan.

Two years. Two years since Yushou vanished. Two years ago that Himika's son discovered that other dimensions exist. ...But why was he wandering between dimensions?

Didn't Himika's husband suddenly retreat from the public eye two years ago?

"The culprit," she says. "Himika-san, was the same culprit behind your husband's disappearance two years ago...?" But Yoko realises, even as she's saying it: no, that's not right. She remembers the way Himika reacted to her legal name. The unspoken request to divorce her from that name. And Yoko knows.

Shuzou stiffens with tension as he comes to the same conclusion. "No," he says. "_No_."

Yoko reaches for anger. She only feels numb and heavy with grief. Himika's eyes burn with enough fury for them all.

"Yes. Without a doubt, Akaba Leo is the true culprit."


	3. missing piece(s)

_3 April_

Shuzou was at the empty You Show building, sorting through all the paperwork he'd neglected this past week, when he got the call. He'd barely even paused to text Yoko, had barely remembered to lock the school behind him, had just run to the police station, breathless with hope. Maybe, just maybe, it was true, and Yuzu really had been found. Even after the explanation Himika gave them, even with the crushing realisation that Yuzu might not even be in this world anymore, he still hoped against all hope… Maybe she escaped. Maybe she eluded her captors and found her way back home.

But it was too much to hope for. He knows that, straight away, when he catches sight of the girl they've found. This girl, sitting behind the large window of the interrogation room, is not Yuzu. Oh, he understands the confusion. Even with her dark pink hair and vivid blue eyes, clothes tattered and dirty and too big on her, she and Yuzu could have been twins. Four girls, Himika said. This must be one of the other three.

She's not Yuzu. His daughter is still imprisoned, and he doesn't know if he'll ever see her again.

He takes a deep, shuddering breath. He's just about to say that, no, this isn't Yuzu, when a door slams and he sees the girl flinch violently. She's terrified. What did she go through to get to this world?

"We believe her kidnappers dyed her hair after the missing person alerts were broadcast," says the officer who met him at the door. She told him her name, but Shuzou can't for the life of him remember it. "She has trouble recognizing Maiami and there are needle marks on her arm, so we think they drugged her, but we need your permission for a blood test."

Shuzou frowns. This girl doesn't look like she wants a needle anywhere near her. Nor anything else, if the way she keeps her eyes fixed on the door is any indication.

"How did you find out about the needle marks?"

The police officer sighs and shakes her head. "It's not our habit, but we needed to know. We took her coat—just for a bit!" she adds when Shuzou's expression darkens. "We gave it back immediately afterwards. But she has the bracelet. That's what we were actually checking for. Silver, with a gem."

That's what the description said about Yuzu's bracelet. Shuzou'll bet anything that this girl's bracelet is nothing like Yuzu's, but she has her sleeves pulled all the way over her hands, hiding any possible jewellery from view. After the stunt the police pulled, it'll be a miracle if she'll ever trust them enough to take off her coat.

"Can I just talk to her? Alone?"

"Yes, of course," the officer says, her voice full of empathy and carefully restrained emotion. Shuzou doesn't want any of it.

She opens the door for him. The girl's head snaps up, her blue eyes following his every move. She looks ready to run, to fight if she has to. Shuzou maintains a respectful distance and waits until the door is closed before speaking. Her face is so much like Yuzu's… He blinks back tears.

"I know you're not Yuzu," he says. The girl doesn't reply. Shuzou soldiers on. "You're not from this world, are you?"

"What do you want?" the girl says. Her voice sounds too young for the harsh edge it's taken on. Shuzou shakes his head.

"I'm Hiiragi Shuzou. My daughter disappeared a week ago."

"She's that Yuzu girl? Everyone keeps calling me that."

Shuzou fishes his wallet out of his jacket and takes out the picture he's been looking at every night for the past week. The one with Yuzu at her elementary school goodbye party just two weeks ago, wearing the flashiest clothes she and Yuuya were able to assemble, her face overtaken by a huge smile. He printed it out the night of the party, intending to frame it. It now lives in his wallet permanently, along with the one card of Yuzu's he still has left: Her Hymn of Light card Yuuya found the day of her disappearance. He steps forward and puts the picture on the table, backing away when the girl flinches.

She picks up the photo. For several seconds, she doesn't move at all. Then she says: "That is a really cheap trick."

"I'm sorry?"

She slaps the picture down. "I don't know what you're trying to accomplish by taking a picture of me and editing it like that, but it's not going to work."

"That's my daughter!"

"As if I'm going to believe that."

She doesn't know, Shuzou realises. About the pieces, and the different versions of Yuzu. He takes a deep breath. "There were people who tried to capture you, weren't there? Why do you think that happened?"

"How should I know?"

"There's a group looking for four girls. I don't know who the other two are, but they took my daughter and they tried to take you."

"The Academia?" The girl's voice raises in pitch. "Am I really supposed to believe the Academia _destroyed_ my world just to find me?"

They destroyed her world? Holy hell, is the Academia really willing to go to such lengths? Himika talked about this. How her son learnt of their plans to invade the Xyz dimension. Does that make this girl— "What's your name?"

"Ruri. You people already know that."

"I didn't." Does the Academia even bother to learn the names of their victims? She's not Selena, the girl from the Fusion dimension, so she has to be the girl from the Xyz dimension. Or did they invade the Synchro dimension too? How do you ask about a thing like that? This girl lived through a war, Shuzou realises. A war that got started solely to find her, and she didn't even know. He shouldn't have told her. That kind of knowledge for a child…

The girl —Ruri— stubbornly looks away. She isn't going to trust him no matter what he says, is she? Maybe if someone else could talk to her… Yoko, or maybe Yuuya. Someone her age. But can they really get Yuuya involved?

"I'm going to leave for a bit," he announces. Ruri visibly relaxes. It breaks his heart, to see this girl who looks so much like Yuzu so afraid of him. "Do you want anything to eat? To drink?"

Ruri licks her chapped lips, but she shakes her head once, brusquely. Shuzou has to look away. What did they do to this child?

He carefully closes the door behind him. The officer at the desk throws him a questioning look. Shuzou shakes his head.

"She doesn't recognise me." He swallows. "Do you think I can call someone else? She has… Her best friend from school. Maybe she'll recognise him."

"Yes, of course. Do you need a phone?"

Shuzou shows her his cell phone. The look she gives him is full of pity, and he can't deal with pity right now, not when the girl in there isn't even Yuzu. He turns the corner and makes sure he's out of earshot before calling Yoko. She picks up after the second ring.

"_Shuzou? Did they find her?_"

For a second, Shuzou can't reply. Why was it Ruri who escaped? Why couldn't it have been Yuzu— Why couldn't it have been Yuzu too?

"They found this girl. Looks like Yuzu, but she's not."

"_One of the other pieces?_" Never let it be said that Yoko is slow on the uptake. "_Where'd she come from?_"

"She's not the Fusion girl. I think she escaped from the Academia. She doesn't trust me."

The image of Ruri, so scared and drawn in on herself, with her face so much like Yuzu's and her clothes tattered and torn, makes his eyes burn with unshed tears. He blinks rapidly. Is Yuzu going through the same thing right now?

"_What are you going to do?_" Yoko asks. He can almost picture her expression, eyebrows drawn together, mouth pulled tight with worry. Shuzou takes a shaky breath to get his voice back under control.

"I was thinking that Yuuya could talk to her. Someone her own age, you know?"

"_Shuzou, if we get Yuuya involved with this, you know what that means, right? He's not even over Yushou disappearing yet. You know what he was like the other day._"

"I know, I know." Shuzou shakes his head. He really wishes they could keep the kids out of this. But Himika's son is already involved, has been for two years, and none of it was enough to prevent Yuzu from being abducted. "Just... what if they come after this girl again? We can't leave her unprotected."

Yoko says nothing. Is asking for Yuuya a bridge too far? But he has to save one, just one! He couldn't protect Yuzu, and what kind of father does that make him? If Ruri falls into the hands of Akaba Leo again—

"_Where are you now?_" Yoko asks, sharply cutting through his thoughts.

"Police office. You—"

"_I'll bring him over. But if this gets too dangerous, you need to promise me we'll keep Yuuya out of it, no matter what._"

"I promise."

Yoko hangs up. Shuzou pockets his phone with clammy hands and leans back against the wall. Nothing to do but wait and hope. If they can break through to Ruri, if they can find Yuzu… If only. If only someone would find his daughter.

Yoko arrives half an hour later, face pale with anger and fear. Yuuya, on the other hand, is practically vibrating with excitement. His goggles sit high on his head, and it's the first time since Yuzu disappeared that Shuzou has seen his eyes. Shuzou gives Yoko a look. She shakes her head when she passes him by and whispers: "I tried to tell him. He still thinks it might be Yuzu."

Shuzou winces. Maybe they shouldn't have told Yuuya about this after all.

"Is this Yuzu-chan's classmate?" The officer asks. Yuuya nods enthusiastically.

"Go ahead, then."

Shuzou leads the way to Ruri's room again. Yuuya rushes past him when he opens the door.

"Yuzu?"

Ruri glances at him. Then her eyes widen and she jumps up, chair clattering to the ground. "Yuuto! They got you too?"

Shuzou gapes. She _knows_ Yuuya? But Ruri freezes in the middle of the room. "You're not Yuuto," she says.

Yuuya stares at her. He slides his goggles back over his eyes; Yoko lowers her head. "You're not Yuzu."

Shuzou makes sure the door is closed tightly. No one needs to overhear this. Who is this Yuuto Ruri talked about? And why did she mistake Yuuya for him?

"Who are you and why do you look like Yuuto?" Ruri asks. Yuuya doesn't reply. He turns to the door and runs a hand through his hair, the long strands now covering his eyes along with his goggles, as if even the goggles aren't enough of a defense anymore... They shouldn't have brought him here. They should have kept Yuuya out of this.

"Well?" Ruri snaps. "What's the trick? Make-up? Have you people been spying on us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Yuuya spins around and throws his hands up. "I don't know that Yuuto guy! Why did you come here? Why can't you just be Yuzu?"

"Yuuya!" Yoko snaps.

"I didn't ask to be captured!" Ruri slams her hands on the table. Shuzou glances at the window. Oh, he hopes no one is seeing this.

"Ruri-san, who is Yuuto?" he asks quickly.

"My comrade." Ruri turns around. She leans heavily onto the table and throws a look at the picture of Yuzu, still in front of her.

"Ruri-san," Shuzou asks. The girl doesn't look away from the picture. "Do you mean you have a friend who looks like Yuuya?"

"Yes." She glances at Yuuya, who is trembling with anger and what Shuzou suspects are tears. He exchanges a look with Yoko. Yuuya also has lookalikes in other worlds? Will Akaba Leo come after him too? They wanted so badly to keep the kids out of this, and now they can't protect Yuuya either? Yoko clenches her fists; Shuzou's sure they're thinking the same thing. First Yushou, then Yuzu, and now even Yuuya? How are they ever going to deal with this? Goddamn you, Akaba Leo.

"There's no trick, is there?" Ruri says. Her voice trembles.

"I'm sorry?" Shuzou consciously relaxes his stance. He can't take his anger out on this girl. She needs a safe place, away from Akaba Leo. Shuzou will not become yet another person to hurt her.

"Your daughter. She really looks like me." She glances at Yuuya. "He wouldn't be so angry if she didn't."

She looks so small, in torn up, too big clothes, and her face is so much like his daughter's that it's easy to imagine Yuzu in her place. They couldn't do anything to protect Yuzu. He's already failed his own child. They can't leave Ruri in the care of people who don't even know what danger she's in. Maybe they can't protect her forever, but shouldn't they at least try?

"I don't know why this is happening or what the Academia wants you and Yuzu for, but the police can't keep you out of their hands. And I don't know if we can either—" Shuzou looks away. Yoko nods encouragingly. "—but we will try. Please give us a chance."

Ruri takes a shuddering breath. She looks at Yuuya again, and her face sets—mouth drawn, eyes narrowed, ready for battle. "What do you want me to do?"

She finally trusts them? "The easiest way would be for you to pretend that you're Yuzu, I think," Shuzou says. "We can get you away from here. Don't worry if they ask you questions. They think you were drugged. It's okay if you just remember me and Yuuya."

Yuuya flinches. He hasn't said a word since his outburst earlier.

"What about your daughter?"

Making Ruri out to be Yuzu will bring the investigation to a stop. Shuzou knows that. All he can tell himself is that the Akabas probably have better resources to find Yuzu than the police, but it still feels like betrayal. This doesn't mean he's giving up on Yuzu, right? He will find her. He has to. They just need to protect Ruri too.

"We'll keep looking, but the people here don't even know about the Academia. They'll never find them," he says.

Ruri nods once, then again. "Okay," she says. "I'll do it."


	4. pièce de résistance

They don't get her out immediately. The police insist on more interviews, hoping that the meeting with the other her's father and best friend will have jogged her memory. Ruri pretends to be confused, a harmless little girl who's no threat to anyone. She's become very good at playing that role, and so, after she tearfully tells them that she doesn't remember what happened, that her kidnappers drugged her, and that she just wants to go home and see her friends, the police officers let her leave with a shoulder pat she flinches away from and an empty promise to find the culprits.

Finally, _finally_, she's out on the street again, but she isn't alone yet. The man pretending to be her father is waiting for her, along with not-Yuuto and his mother. Not-Yuuto refuses to even spare her a second glance, his goggles pressed tightly against his eyes. If he wants to limit his own field of vision, Ruri is perfectly fine with that.

They walk in uncomfortable silence. No one restrains her, but wouldn't that just be another trick? If she tries to run, will they drug her again? No, better she wait and watch. The more she learns about this world before making her escape, the better. And this city is so wide and beautiful. Ruri takes in the clean streets, the park where people are milling around in the late afternoon sun and the many children out playing. She sees two girls duelling, their smiles wide and joyful. It's just like Heartland was before. Ruri swallows hard, her throat dry. She won't cry. Not in front of these people.

"I'll make pancakes," not-Yuuto's mother says. "Is that okay, Ruri-san?"

She hasn't eaten anything since she escaped, and she hasn't eaten pancakes in years. Shun made the best pancakes, when they still lived at home and still had the ingredients to make them. She has never wanted pancakes so badly in her life.

"I don't need anything," she says.

The other her's father stops walking and kneels down. Ruri draws her hands up, but he doesn't try to touch her.

"When was the last time you ate anything, Ruri-san?"

Ruri doesn't reply. Once she gets away, she'll find something. Her parched throat tells her she shouldn't put it off too long.

"Can I make a suggestion?" the other her's father asks, undeterred by her silence. Up close, she sees how tired he looks, how there's a pallor to his face that doesn't belong there. He really did lose his daughter, didn't he? He's probably just trying to sell her out to the Academia to get that Yuzu girl back. And if it were Shun, wouldn't she do the same? He only wants his daughter back. But Ruri only wants to go home, and she's going to get there no matter what.

"Ruri-san?"

"What?" The other her's father is still right in front of her, too-tired eyes finding hers. Does he see his daughter when he looks at her? The girl in the picture had ginger hair, much like her father, but her face was the same as Ruri's.

"There's a supermarket right around the corner. We can go there, and you can choose whatever you want. We won't tell you what to get and I'll pay for everything, no questions asked. Would that be okay?"

Ruri… can't actually see any flaws with that plan. She glances at not-Yuuto, who's half-heartedly kicking at a pebble further down the road. He'd probably betray her in a heartbeat. He and the Yuzu girl must have been good friends, so why would he want Ruri here when he could have her? What if it's a trap? But she's so thirsty… Just seeing the store can't hurt, right? If nothing else, she'll learn more about the city.

"Okay," she says. The other her's father smiles. He looks relieved. Because he's worried about her? Or because she's walking into their trap?

"This way," he says, and leads her across one of the city's many busy crossroads. Ruri follows reluctantly. No one is paying attention to her. She could run right now if she wanted to, but she also has no money and they offered to pay for whatever she wanted. It's too good an opportunity to pass up.

The supermarket is exactly like the ones they used to have in Heartland, down to the flower stand to the right of the entrance and the sales bins she spots a few aisles down. On his mother's urging, not-Yuuto takes a cart and pushes it over to her without a word. He's still wearing those goggles. Does he ever take them off?

But Ruri has bigger things to worry about. She makes a beeline for the bottles of water in the very first aisle and picks up a pack of six half-litre bottles, all seals intact. It won't get her very far, but it will last her long enough until she can find more. She licks her lips. Her saliva feels sticky, but as soon as she's out of this store, she can drink.

Not -Yuuto's mother approaches her as she puts the bottles in the cart. "You can drink now, dear," she whispers. "We'll just tell the cashier to scan the empty bottles too. I'm sure they won't mind."

Ruri hesitates. If she drinks now, that's at least one bottle they can't have tampered with, and her throat hurts so badly. The air-conditioning in the store is wreaking havoc on her already chapped lips. She grits her teeth and opens one of the bottles.

It's heaven, drinking again after so long. It must have been over a day since she drank anything, and she finishes the first bottle in just a few gulps. She throws a longing look at the rest of the pack, but she needs to keep something in reserve.

"You can take another pack, if you want," the other her's father says. Well, if he insists... Ruri takes another bottle to keep with her and then picks up a second pack. She'll take whatever she can carry. They'll give grocery bags here, right? Maybe she can smuggle one away.

True to their word, the other three let her choose whatever she wants. She picks out several boxes of muesli bars, a bag of dried fruit, and, because she hasn't had any in ages, chocolate and candy. She'll save that for when she gets back to Heartland. Ruri tries not to think of what the other her's father said, that she's the reason their world got invaded. She tries not to believe that Shun and Yuuto will be safer without her. The Academia can't keep looking for her forever, right? Once she goes back, she can finally see Shun and Yuuto again, and she'll even have chocolate to share with them! They'll love it.

She gets ramen and biscuits, and passes the fruit stand regretfully. Not worth the risk, even if she's been craving apples for years. She almost skips the sanitary aisle altogether, but a large ad for deodorant makes her pause. It stirs a memory, one of the very early days of the invasion. Their small group, then only consisting of herself, Shun, Yuuto and a few of Shun's classmates, being chased by Academia soldiers. Shun pulling her and Yuuto into an empty building, watching helplessly as his friends got cornered. And then, the class president of Shun's class stepping forward, clutching a can of deodorant no one even knew she had, and spraying the soldiers in the face.

Ever since then, they all carried spray cans with them. Even water could be enough to delay an Academia soldier for a few seconds, and deodorant was one of the few things they actually had a decent supply of. So now Ruri turns into the aisle. She makes a big production of smelling the different cans and finally grabs one at random. No one stops her. Not-Yuuto is off to the side, uninterested like he's been throughout this entire trip. Ruri doesn't smile, but she wants to. She has a weapon now.

On a whim, she takes hair dye—a colour a shade lighter and a bit more vivid than her own dark pink. She's learned that drastic changes aren't always needed. Sometimes just the wrong shade can be enough to throw people off.

"You can use the bathroom later," not-Yuuto's mother says. "Have you ever dyed your hair before?"

Really, is there nothing they won't let her buy? "I'll figure it out," she tells the woman. How hard can it be?

Not-Yuuto's mother smiles at her, the kind of comforting smile the adults used to give them. The smile that told them everything was going to be okay, and they'd all make it out just fine. Ruri hates that smile.

She turns away, back to her cart. There's not much more she can carry, not with all the water bottles. Unless… She glances at the other her's father. Then, very deliberately, she turns into the school supplies aisle, grabs a large blue backpack with reinforced sides, and puts it in the cart. No one says anything. When she looks at the man, he just nods and gives her a brief smile.

… Huh.

Ruri finishes her second bottle of water. She now has ten left, and a backpack to carry them in. Really, there's nothing more she needs. She should just get out here and run while she still has the chance. She glances at the aisles as she passes them by.

And freezes. Because the next aisle is a games aisle, and there are…

"Cards," she whispers. They sell duel monster cards here. The Academia soldiers took her deck and duel disk after they drugged her, and she hasn't felt safe ever since. If she has a deck, she can actually defend herself with more than just a spray can. She heads down the aisle, even abandoning her cart for the time being, and reaches for a booster, then changes her mind. The structure decks. They don't compare to a custom-made deck and they definitely don't compare to the deck she painstakingly built herself, but at the very least she'll have a complete and functional deck, not a random collection of forty cards.

"Do you duel?" not-Yuuto asks. Ruri starts. It's the first thing he's said since they left the police station.

"Of course." Everyone she knows duels. The people who didn't sure learned fast when the Academia soldiers came.

Not-Yuuto nods. He stands next to her while she looks at the cards, fidgeting slightly. Out of the corner of her eyes, Ruri sees the adults take a step back.

"What deck do you play?" asks not-Yuuto after a few seconds of silence. He runs a hand through his hair, stubbornly refusing to look at her. "I have an Entermate deck."

Ruri's never heard of that archetype. She takes one of the structure decks off the shelf. "I had a deck that disables special summons. They took it."

"… Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah." She frowns at the back of the box. If only she actually knew half of these cards… "What're these?" she asks not-Yuuto. Not-Yuuto takes off his goggles.

"That's a beatdown deck. " He frowns. "It's good, if you want it."

"But?"

Not-Yuuto shrugs. "Not really my style."

It isn't really hers either. She wants something that can get past the soldiers' monsters. "Are there any burn decks here?"

Not-Yuuto narrows his eyes. For a second, he resembles Yuuto so much that Ruri chokes up, eyes burning. Then his face brightens and he stands on his toes to grab another deck. "Here!"

He pushes the deck in her hands. Ruri reads the back. A fire deck… Not quite her usual style, but she can work with that. She turns the box around and around in her hands. No one's stopped her yet… They're letting her have a deck. They're actually letting her have a deck. The store has no duel disks, but if there's one thing the Resistance is good at, it's getting duel disks away from Academia soldiers. Just having a deck of her own, not a stolen one she doesn't know how to use... Ruri feels safer than she has in days.

She doesn't put the deck in the cart. She's not letting go of it right now. Not-Yuuto grabs a few boosters as Ruri heads back to her cart. It's still exactly where she left it, completely untouched. It should be enough to last her a few days.

"That's everything," she announces. The other her's father wanders over.

"You're sure you don't need anything else? Anything you'd like to eat tonight?"

She shakes her head. She has ramen. It's good enough.

"No clothes?"

Her clothes are old and torn, but they're hers. Ruri tugs at the red ribbon that ties her hair together and marks her as part of the Resistance. Shun got it for her years ago, when everyone first started wearing red to distinguish themselves from the deep-cover Academia soldiers. She's not giving that up for the world.

"I'm fine."

"Alright. We can come back if you change your mind."

True to his word, the other her's father pays for everything. Ruri stuffs all the food and water into her new backpack and doesn't let anyone else touch it. She puts her new deck inside her jacket, where she kept her old deck when it had to remain hidden from view. A deck holder would be so useful right now, but she hasn't seen any. Now she only needs a duel disk and she can duel.

"Here," not-Yuuto says when they step out of the store, back into the balmy spring air of the city. He's holding out one of the booster packs he bought. "I'm... Sorry. For earlier. I just miss Yuzu."

"I— Thank you." She stuffs the booster with her new deck. She's not going to let any cards pass her by! "I hope you find your friend."

She really does. These people are so ridiculously nice… If they're luring her into a trap, they're being very stupid about it. The Academia soldiers never talked to her. They only gave her just enough food so she could keep walking and they barely cared whether she could keep up. And now these people bought her food and cards, and they actually seem concerned about her. Maybe they should have something nice. If they find that Yuzu girl, they won't turn her over to the Academia. Ruri blinks rapidly. She just has to stay a little bit longer, just until everything's okay again. Then she can finally go home.


	5. piece together

When Mum called him downstairs earlier today, Yuuya had been so hopeful, because Yuzu was back! Yuzu's dad had texted Mum, and then there'd been that phone call, and what else could it be about? No matter what Mum said, Yuzu had to be back.

But Ruri isn't Yuzu. Ruri's steps are careful and measured, where Yuzu would skip ahead of Yuuya until he had to run to catch up. Ruri only speaks in short sentences, but Yuzu would talk forever about what her dad had done, and about the school's new Solid Vision system they only got to try out once, or the duel they watched the day before. What was their last conversation even about? Yuuya reaches for his goggles and slides them down. It was so stupid. Why didn't he go to LDS with Yuzu? He just wants to go to his room and ignore this strange version of Yuzu until the real Yuzu comes back.

"I'll start on pancakes," Mum whispers as she unlocks the front door. Yuuya nods. He's not hungry. Hasn't been for the last week.

Ruri lingers in the doorway, her every muscle tensed up, eyes flitting from side to side.

"Ruri-san, come on in," Yuzu's dad urges, but she still doesn't move. What did those people do to her? What are they doing to Yuzu?

At long last, Ruri takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders and walks past Yuuya into the living room, hands tight around the straps of her backpack. She's tired, Yuuya realizes. Beneath all the bravado, she's just as sad and lonely as Yuuya feels. Who did she lose? That Yuuto guy she mistook him for?

"Can I use the bathroom?" she asks.

"Of course!" Mum moves forward, a flurry of activity as she shows Ruri upstairs. That's just what Mum does. Mum always needs something to do.

Yuzu's dad collapses on the couch the moment they're gone. He closes his eyes.

"Principal? Are you okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah," Yuzu's dad says. He doesn't open his eyes. "What about you?"

Yuuya doesn't have a good answer for that, so he says nothing. He throws his jacket onto the nearest chair and heads for the kitchen. He's still not hungry. He just wants something to do. It seems to work for Mum.

"We'll find her, I promise," Yuzu's dad says. Yuuya has to strain to hear him. "But Ruri-san is in danger too. You understand, right?"

Yuuya isn't sure who he's trying to convince. He doesn't _want _Ruri to fall into the hands of those people. He wants her safe and happy. He just wants Yuzu back too.

He hears water running upstairs. Yuuya looks around for something to do, but the kitchen is spotless and smells faintly of disinfectant, courtesy of Mum's relentless cleaning efforts this week. The living room doesn't give him anything to do either, but he doesn't want to go upstairs, not now that Ruri is there to remind him of Yuzu. Instead, he just slumps against the doorway and stares into the living room. Yuzu's dad hasn't moved at all. He looks so old… Yuuya chews on his lower lip. Why is there nothing he can do? What would Dad have done? Yuuya tries to force a smile, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't manage it right now.

Mum comes back downstairs, takes one look at Yuzu's dad, and bustles past Yuuya into the kitchen. "Yuuya, come help me with the batter!" she calls. "Shuzou, pancakes are okay, right?"

"Don't bother on my account," Yuzu's dad says. He's said the same thing every single day of this last week. The first few days, Mum argued with him. After three days, she just sat him down and told him to eat.

"Yuuya?"

"Coming, Mum!"

In the kitchen, Mum's already taken out a mixing bowl. She hands him eggs from the fridge when he passes by.

"Where are En and Core?" Yuuya asks. He deposits the eggs on the counter, and grabs flour and another bowl.

"They're upstairs. I think En wanted to play with Ruri-san."

At least someone in this house is having fun. When Yuuya is adding milk, he hears En bark, and a few minutes later, Ruri appears in the kitchen, the dog right on her heels. She's still wearing her torn clothes, but she looks cleaner now. She's brushed her hair and tied it into a tight bun with the frayed red ribbon she's been wearing all day.

"Do you want a pancake, Ruri-san?" Mum asks. Ruri shakes her head, but Yuuya sees her stare at the pan where the first pancake is baking.

"Can I borrow a pot?"

"Of course. Yuuya, can you give her one?"

Yuuya fishes a pot out of the closet and hands it to her without a word. Ruri puts it on the fire, empties one of her water bottles in it, and waits for the water to boil. Wouldn't it be far easier to just take tap water and use the electric kettle?

Ten minutes later, they're all half-heartedly poking at their pancakes, except for Ruri, who's devouring a cup of ramen. Even so, she stares longingly at the pancakes, but she declines any offer to try one.

"I'll just put the leftovers away in case you change your mind, Ruri-san," Mum says. Ruri nods, hands clenched tightly around the now-empty ramen cup. En is yapping at her side, begging for leftovers. She tries to scratch him behind his ears, but En, who never wants cuddles when he can have food, dances away and continues barking on the other side of her chair. Ruri actually smiles, eyes soft as she looks at him.

"You have a nice dog," she says. Yuuya swallows and nods. He can't tell her how much she looked like Yuzu just now.

Ruri finally surrenders the empty ramen cup to En, who walks away, tail wagging. She takes her new deck out of her coat, along with the booster pack Yuuya gave her earlier. Right. He hasn't opened his own packs either.

Mum has disappeared back into the kitchen. Yuzu's dad is back on the couch, scrolling through a page on his tablet. Ruri sifts through her cards. She glances at Yuuya.

"You duel, right?"

Yuzu's dad throws a quick look their way at the mention of dueling. Is Ruri looking to understand him better? Maybe she's finally starting to trust them, a bit. The old saying, "You know a duelist by their deck," runs through Yuuya's head; he takes his deck from its holder and pushes it across the table to her. Ruri glances between him and the deck. Her blue eyes are cold and penetrating and not very friendly at all. Yuzu never looked at him like that. He's glad he still has his goggles.

Ruri nods and finally turns her attention to his deck, picking it up with careful movements. Her frown deepens with every card she looks at.

"How do you fight with this?" she asks, holding up Entermate Trampolynx. "They're so weak…"

Yuuya slips his goggles off. Weak? "They're entertaining! I just want to make people laugh and have fun while dueling, don't you?"

Ruri gapes at him. "No. Why would I?"

Why would she— Yuuya flounders. Maybe... Maybe she just isn't an entertainment duelist. Yeah, Gongenzaka isn't either, and that doesn't make him less of a duelist. "But you like dueling, right?" he asks. "I mean, why else would you duel?"

"Because I don't want to die."

Yuzu's dad looks up sharply. Yuuya stares at the table. Die? Would those people kill— If he'd gone with Yuzu to LDS, would they have—?

"And I beat them and they took me anyway," Ruri continues. She clenches her hands around the cards. "I beat them! If Sh—" She pauses abruptly and shrinks in on herself. In a tiny voice, like she's just realised something awful, she says, "They took everyone from me."

Does she mean—? Yuuya doesn't want to think about it. "I'm sorry," he whispers. What else can he say?

"You really don't know anything," Ruri mumbles. She grabs the booster pack and tears it open violently. "Your name's Yuuya, right?"

Should he be annoyed or relieved at the change of subject? Relieved, mostly. He doesn't want to think about people not having the opportunity to duel for fun—or the rest of it. "Yeah, that's right," he says.

"Yuuya," she says again, like she's sounding out the differences between him and that Yuuto boy she mentioned, the one who looks like Yuuya. He's probably nothing like Yuuto. But she's nothing like Yuzu.

Ruri shifts through the cards in the pack, briefly lingers on a trap card and finally stops at a monster. She shows him the card. "What do you know about this?"

"Aria the Melodious Diva?" he reads. "Um, it's a new archetype. I think they were released with this set, actually." Yuuya'll stick with his own deck, but the Melodious monsters look like fun.

"I like them," Ruri says softly. She hums a snatch of a melody Yuuya doesn't recognise, voice trembling on the longer notes. Her voice is kind of nice, despite the wobbling, and it's so normal compared to everything else she's said and done. Yuuya doesn't think it's obvious that he's listening to her, but she suddenly stops mid-note, face pulling into another frown. She ducks her head and puts Aria with the trap card she'd looked at earlier. Yuuya opens his own packs. Maybe she's just shy about singing?

"Here's another one. Sonata."

Ruri accepts the card and turns it over. By the time Yuuya's gone through his packs, Ruri has a small pile of Melodious monsters and Yuuya has a few cards she insisted on giving him, 'to make your deck stronger.' They actually look like they could be useful.

Mum comes back, hands still wet from doing the dishes. "I put some clothes and old towels in the bathroom for you if you want to dye your hair, Ruri-san," she says. "It's almost nine, so you shouldn't wait too long if you want to do so before bed."

Something like panic crosses Ruri's face at the mention of bed. Her hand tightens around her new deck, the other going to the straps of her backpack. Mum's face falls. Is she really so afraid to sleep? What about Yuzu? Ruri was so hungry… Are they feeding Yuzu enough? Are they letting her sleep? Is she all alone or are there people with her? Those Academia people don't want her dead, but are they treating her well at all?

"Don't wash your hair before you dye it. Just get it wet," Mum says, face a cheerful mask again. "You still know the way, right?"

"Yes, thank you." Ruri gets up, deck clutched in her hand, and disappears from the room. When the bathroom door closes, Yuzu's dad finally moves.

"I sent a message to Himika-san," he whispers. Yuuya stares at the pile of cards in front of him. Why are they trusting LDS when that's where Yuzu disappeared?

Mum throws a look upstairs. "We need to keep her safe. They're probably looking for her everywhere."

"Not here." Yuzu's dad's voice is almost too soft to hear. "They already have what they wanted here."

Yuuya pushes his chair back and grabs his deck. "Going upstairs," he mutters, and flees. He can't deal with this. He wants Yuzu back. School starts after the weekend and they were supposed to go together. They even got their uniforms together! But Yuzu's uniform is still at her home, and the girl in the bathroom isn't Yuzu. He wants to call Gongenzaka, but he doesn't even know about Ruri or what happened to Yuzu.

The water's running again when he passes the bathroom. He closes his bedroom door behind him and locks it. The place is a mess. He broke his headphones in a fit of anger a few days ago, so now he can't even blast music without the entire house hearing. Stupid. Everything's screwed up and Yuuya can't fix it.

The water shuts off. Ruri hasn't even been in the bathroom for ten minutes. Yuuya wonders where she'll sleep. Yuzu's dad is already sleeping in the guest room. Where is Yuzu sleeping now? Is she sleeping at all? He keeps listening, but Ruri doesn't leave the bathroom.

She hasn't left yet when Yuuya goes back downstairs half an hour later, because anything is better than staring at the wall of his bedroom. Yuzu's dad is messaging someone, tapping at the screen of his tablet with angry fervour, more animated than Yuuya's seen him in days. It's not a good animated. His face is contorted into a frown and he doesn't even look up when Yuuya passes by.

Mum's in the kitchen, putting out a batch of cookies to cool when he enters. She's probably baked enough to feed half the city this week.

"Yuuya, good. Ask Ruri-san if she wants some cookies if you go upstairs, okay?"

Yuuya highly doubts it, but there's a kind of manic light in Mum's eyes that tells him he should ask anyway. He hopes the people at the Gongenzaka dojo are hungry. They're going to have a lot to eat if Mum keeps baking like this.

He accepts the plate of cookies she pushes into his hands and offers one to Yuzu's dad, who's now muttering angrily, still typing away. He turns the tablet around and waves Yuuya away. Another one of those things he's not allowed to see. Yuuya's thirteen. That doesn't mean he's stupid. He mechanically chews on a cookie as he goes upstairs. Yuzu loves these. Yuuya hates them now.

He knocks on the bathroom door. "Ruri-san, Mum asked if you want cookies."

There's a loud bang and a muffled swear. "No thanks!" Ruri shouts.

Yuuya lingers. "Um, are you okay?"

The silence lasts for so long that Yuuya's got half a mind to walk on to his room. Then there's the click of the lock, and Ruri's blue eyes appear in the doorway.

"Can't reach the back of my head," she mutters, face a picture of petulance. It's such a Yuzu expression. Were they alike, before Ruri got abducted?

"I'll get Mum," he says. Ruri shakes her head.

"Just help me out here."

Yuuya glances at the plate of cookies. Not like he was going to eat them anyway. He puts them down and Ruri opens the bathroom door just far enough for him to enter.

Yuuya's goggles fog over the moment he steps inside. He reluctantly takes them off and blinks against the sudden bright light. The entire bathroom smells like chemicals, and the air is heavy with steam. Yuuya looks at Ruri and swallows. She's wearing one of Yuzu's old green tracksuits; it's slightly too large on her. Now that she isn't wearing the many layers she had on before, it's obvious just how thin she is. But it's the bracelet on her arm that really catches his attention. She must have covered it up with her sleeves before, but now he can see it clear as day. The style is exactly like Yuzu's bracelet, the one she's worn everywhere for as long as Yuuya's known her, and he doesn't even remember anymore how long that's been. Only, where Yuzu's bracelet consisted of a single silver ring with a dangling blue charm, Ruri's forms a cross inlaid with a pink gemstone. Yuuya tears his eyes away and moves to open the window.

"No!" Ruri half-shouts, eyes wide with panic. Yuuya freezes, hand inches away from the handle. "They'll enter that way," Ruri whispers.

The smell of hair dye is almost overpowering, but Yuuya nods anyway. The people who took Ruri are the same people who kidnapped Yuzu, and they ambushed Yuzu in broad daylight. Of course they'd break into their house to get Ruri.

"Window closed, okay," he says. Ruri sits down heavily on the side of the tub and pulls the towel around her shoulders closer. It's covered in pink stains.

"What should I do?"

Ruri nods at the sink, where a tin of hair dye sits. Large parts of Ruri's hair are already covered with the mixture.

"You just kind of need to paint it, root to tip," Ruri says. "There are gloves there somewhere."

Yuuya finds them between the mess of towels covering the sink. He puts them on, grabs the brush, and carefully takes a lock of Ruri's hair. It's longer than Yuzu's, now that she has it down.

"Like this?" Yuuya asks as he applies the dye.

Ruri glances at him warily. "Yeah."

He finishes dyeing Ruri's hair in silence. Her entire head is now covered in whitish-pink cream, except for the two light pink strands at the front. Yuzu has those lighter strands as well, only hers are strawberry blonde. Do all the girls those Academia people tried to kidnap look like that?

"Now what?"

"Now I have to wait for another twenty minutes."

"Oh." There's really nothing more he can say, is there? "… Do you want a cookie?"

Ruri grimaces, emotions warring on her face. "Yeah, sure," she says at long last. Huh. He honestly expected her to say no. Yuuya grabs the plate still sitting on the floor in the hallway, grateful that En didn't get to it, and carries it back inside. Ruri looks conflicted when she takes a cookie. Hungry, yes, but also scared. Did they drug all her food?

Ruri breaks her cookie in half and offers him one part. It's not a request, not really. She watches carefully as he chews, and only eats her own half when he swallows.

"They're good," she mutters, taking the next cookie and breaking it in half again. She does the same with the next one, and the next, until Yuuya's thoroughly sick of cookies and Ruri's twenty minutes are up. He leaves her to rinse out her hair and takes the empty plate back downstairs. Yuzu's dad isn't typing anymore. He just looks furious, but his expression softens when he sees Yuuya and the empty plate.

"Ruri-san ate the cookies? That's great!" he says. His smile is genuine, if strained.

"Yeah." Yuuya might have liked to have Ruri as a friend. She seems nice, when she isn't twitchy and stand-offish and scared. He thinks Yuzu would have liked her too.

If only he could have Yuzu back, he probably wouldn't resent her so much.


	6. falling to pieces

**Chapter warnings: **mentions of attempted suicide; mentions of violence against children; canon dysfunctional/unhealthy family dynamics; medical procedures performed without informed consent; identity loss.

* * *

_4 April_

The enemy has won the first battle before they even knew there was a battle to be fought.

They've spent all this time preparing for the wrong thing entirely. Himika should have noticed the trap sooner. The trace fragments of information about the pieces – they'd been left deliberately, to bait Himika and Reiji into pursuing a false trail while the enemy prepared to snatch the true target. She can't begin to guess at the purpose of it all, at the true significance of the pieces. But she has to assume that Academia now holds three of the four. It is nothing more than luck that the fourth has fallen within LDS' reach.

As far as Maiami is aware, though, this was just a random kidnapping that ended, thankfully, with the girl returning to her family alive and mostly well. Only five people know that Hiiragi Yuzu is not the real Hiiragi Yuzu.

Reiji handles the LDS press release with all the skill she expects of him. It simply wouldn't do for Himika to give it, not when she holds the knowledge she does; and Reiji lies so prettily when he doesn't know he's lying. He speaks well. His youth, and his status as a duelist, count in his favour. His serious, earnest manner persuades even those least disposed to listening. People will walk away convinced that LDS did all they could to assist the police investigation and that they will continue to assist in the search for the perpetrators. Even Himika couldn't have done better.

Out of the public eye, though, he voices his concerns that Academia will soon make another attempt on the girl. He doesn't know, and Himika can't tell him, that Academia won't come looking here. Only five people know that she's not the real Hiiragi Yuzu. That's five people too many. She won't add a sixth, even if that sixth person is Reiji.

There's no point in telling him information that she only plans to erase.

Everything would have been considerably simpler had LDS found the girl first. If nothing else, they would have had more time, more options. Keep the girl safely hidden until they understood the situation. Continue the public search for Hiiragi Yuzu. Continue the private search for a way into the Fusion Dimension –

But they're not ready for a conflict with Academia. They may never be ready in time to stop tragedy befalling their world.

It's done now. For all the problems it causes, Himika has to admit that Hiiragi-san made the best call in a terrible situation, yesterday. Who knows what would have happened to the girl, had she been left in police custody? A second media storm, born out of her similar face to the missing girl from Maiami. A search for her family. Publicity, and if the enemy left spies here in Standard (and Himika knows that there will certainly be spies, if not now then in the future; _that_ _man _would never leave them entirely unwatched), sooner or later the news would filter back to Academia.

No, better by far that they pretend, for now, that she is Hiiragi Yuzu. There'll be a handful of news items at most, which Reiji is already working to keep hidden from online searches. Keep those hidden, he believes, and it delays how quickly they'll find her again. It's an admirable goal. That is, if the girl was really Hiiragi Yuzu. But why would anyone look for the missing piece outside of her home dimension?

She's forced to gamble. The current plan hinges on there being no spies at all left in Standard. Everything is far too uncertain for her liking, but there are no other options. They're trapped. Himika can only hope that she's guessed the enemy's hand correctly.

And Hiiragi-san is forced to keep a cuckoo-chick in his nest, until such time as they manage to recover the real Hiiragi Yuzu... or, she can't help but think, that they fail and let this piece, too, fall into Academia's clutches.

* * *

She orders the remainder of her meetings to be rescheduled. Fortunately, all of them are internal to LDS. As everyone is fully aware of how involved the Akabas have been with the search for Hiiragi Yuzu, or her kidnappers, neither the secretaries nor the affected faculty staff question her decision. It has always been Akaba Himika's policy to personally visit any students who have gone through something especially trying; and while Hiiragi Yuzu isn't within LDS' jurisdiction, her abduction and subsequent retrieval has certainly affected LDS' image. Nobody sees anything suspicious in her choice.

Nobody except Reiji.

She is in her office, mentally fortifying herself for the meeting ahead, when the elder of her sons appears. Gone is the confidence with which he'd held himself during the press release earlier; he slips through the door as though he half expects somebody to stop him. It's the way he moved when he was thirteen and forever looking over his shoulder, constantly wary of watching eyes.

"Mother."

"Reiji." Himika makes sure that he can't see the log of her conversation with Hiiragi-san, and moves around her desk towards him. "Has something happened?"

"No," he says. "There's been no sign of anything. Is she really – "

"There is no doubt," she tells him. "I have spoken with Hiiragi Shuzou. The girl did manage to escape her captors, and she managed to find a way to Maiami. I hope to find out how."

"She's definitely Hiiragi Yuzu?" asks Reiji. Probing. Seeking assurance. Seeking out the truths she has to hide.

Himika looks him in the eye. "Yes," she lies.

He doesn't quite believe her, but he hides his uncertainty almost as well as Himika hides her deceit. Eventually, he nods in acceptance and turns to leave. Himika lets him.

Then she turns back to the message log and scours it from existence. If Reiji does suspect her of hiding information from him, she cannot risk him finding evidence of it. She cannot afford to lose his trust when there is so much at stake.

She leaves LDS soon after. By late afternoon, she stands on the pathway to the Sakaki household. Sakaki Yoko opens the door before she even has the chance to knock. Both of them watch until the car pulls away; then Sakaki-san invites her inside. Nakajima will return when she calls for him.

There's nobody else in the house. Strangely, that makes Himika almost relieved. There are issues she needs to discuss before she even talks with the girl, and of the two adults, Sakaki Yoko is the one more likely to consider what she has to say.

Even if she can't be sure that Sakaki Yoko is somebody she can trust.

"Shuzou took the children out for a bit," Sakaki-san explains, briefly busying herself in the kitchen. Himika can hear a kettle boiling. Tea, again. "Ruri wanted to see more of the city, so it might be a while before they're back."

Himika nods. "How much did Hiiragi-san tell you of our conversation yesterday evening?"

It takes a moment for Sakaki-san to reply. "Enough," she says, carrying the tea through. "Are you really stopping the search for Yuzu-chan?"

Of course Hiiragi Shuzou would take that impression from her words. "We will continue to search for a way to travel between dimensions," she assures Sakaki-san. "But it has been two years since we first learned of the Academia, and we still have no way of accessing such a pathway. We are no closer to finding one. How can we reach Hiiragi Yuzu when we cannot even reach the Academia?"

"Your people don't know they're looking for a way to get to Yuzu-chan."

Himika tamps down irritation. Important as the girl is, she is not and cannot be LDS' sole concern. There's this second girl to think about, too; and most of all, the safety of all of Standard is at stake.

"They know they are looking for pathways between our dimension and the Academia. They know of the danger that the Academia poses to us," she says, careful to keep her frustration from showing. She reminds herself that Sakaki-san doesn't know what she does, doesn't realise how dangerous the knowledge they hold is. She can be forgiven her ignorance. "I simply cannot allow any more people than necessary to know that this girl is not Hiiragi Yuzu."

Sakaki-san doesn't reply. She quietly sips her tea, contemplative. Himika glances at the clock. How long will it be until Hiiragi-san returns with the children? There is still too much to discuss to waste time on this subject.

She has to gamble, again. Has to hope that Sakaki-san's loyalties lie with Standard rather than with Sakaki Yushou. Wherever he is. Whichever side he is truly on.

"All of Maiami City believes that Hiiragi Yuzu has been found," she says. "At present, only five people know the truth of the girl's identity. But every person who knows that truth is a security risk. The only solution I can see is to suppress it... to suppress our memories of these events as much as possible. LDS is in possession of the technology..."

"You want to erase our memories," interrupts Sakaki-san, incredulous. "You expect us to _agree to that_?"

"Suppress," Himika insists. The distinction is important. "Memory suppression can be undone. It will be necessary only until we recover Hiiragi Yuzu - "

Sakaki-san sets her mug down with a clatter, and fixes her eyes on her clenched hands. "I can understand why you think it's necessary for the children," she says, in a voice that trembles with anger. "I don't like it at all, but I understand. Yuuya wouldn't be able to keep up the pretence, and it's too much to ask of Ruri." Sakaki-san looks at her, then, eyes blazing, and Himika is glad they're facing each other across a coffee table rather than a dueling field. "But for us? We can't keep Ruri safe if we don't remember what to keep her safe from!"

"I know." Himika exhales, closing her eyes. "I know. One of us will have to keep their memories. And it cannot be me." If the children are the greatest risk to the charade... as the current leader of LDS, somebody _that man_ surely suspects of attempting to act against him, she is the second-greatest risk. She cannot allow her memories to betray them all. Her knowledge of these events must be suppressed at all costs.

"If you made us forget about Yuzu-chan... Shuzou would never forgive you if he found out," says Sakaki-san. "And his forgiveness wouldn't mean anything to you at all, would it? But you can't run the risk of alienating him, not when he's the only person who can keep Ruri safe."

It's the same conclusion that Himika came to.

It's the reason why Sakaki Yoko has to be the fourth one to forget.

The anger drains from Sakaki-san's voice. "That's a terrible burden for one person to bear."

"We have no other – "

"We_ do_. I have to remember as well. Please – it's not just them," Sakaki-san says, with sudden urgency, "Yuzu-chan, Ruri, Selena, that fourth girl – they're not the only ones who share a face. There's somebody who looks like Yuuya. Ruri mistook him for somebody from her dimension at first. What if Academia targets my son, too?"

Himika understands that concern more than she'd ever dare admit. She doesn't know what she would do if the war arrived in Standard tomorrow and she found herself unable to protect Reiji and Reira. But this isn't the time for sentiment. She turns her thoughts to what Sakaki-san said, about the further dimensional counterpart. There was nothing out of the ordinary about Hiiragi Yuzu, except for a diligence not often seen in such a young duelist. There's nothing particularly special about Sakaki Yuuya, who is consistently _not good enough_ to qualify for the Maiami Championship. Why are these two children the ones with counterparts?

With a frown, Himika says, "There's nothing that suggests your son is in any more danger than the rest of Standard – "

"Until the Academia abducted her, there was nothing that suggested Yuzu-chan was in any danger," Sakaki-san interrupts. "Besides, Ruri's friend might be dead."

...Dead?

In any other situation, Himika would look past such a word, would focus on the inherent uncertainty of the 'might be'. But one week ago exactly a thirteen-year-old girl vanished, just minutes away from the safety of LDS, because they failed to realise she was being targeted by Academia. Yesterday, a different thirteen-year-old girl was found, ragged and terrified. One of her sons is heavily involved in the efforts to protect Standard from the Academia, while the other may be targeted solely because of his family's actions.

Sakaki-san's son is just thirteen years old. The four pieces, most likely, are all thirteen years old. This girl's friend... if he was a counterpart to Sakaki Yuuya, as the girl is to Hiiragi Yuzu, then he, too, must have been thirteen. Just thirteen. If the Academia are willing to kill a thirteen-year-old child, then she came so close to losing Reiji, two years ago. Had he encountered anyone other than his – than _that man_, then Reiji could have so easily never returned from the different dimension, alive or otherwise.

They're all just children.

"Is there really no other way to keep her safe?"

Before Himika can reply, there's a sound at the front door. Sakaki-san leans across the coffee table and whispers a hurried warning: "Yuuya doesn't know about the dimensions, just that the Academia exists." Himika frowns. That makes things more difficult than they ought to be.

Sakaki-san stands, grabs the two empty mugs – wait, empty? – and hurries away to the kitchen again; moments later Hiiragi-san leads the children into the house. His face clouds over when he spots Himika.

Himika's gaze moves past him, her attention captured by the child who has unknowingly derailed the Academia's plans and bought them all time.

The girl really does look remarkably like Hiiragi Yuzu. The hair, of course, is the most obvious difference. However, the police did mention, in their press release, that the kidnappers changed the girl's hair colour. People will not second-guess Hiiragi Yuzu's newly pink hair. It's so obvious a change that even Himika almost misses how the girl's eyes are a brighter, purer blue than Hiiragi Yuzu's, which bore the same slight green tinge as Hiiragi-san's. Yes, people who don't know the girl will explain away the change as odd lighting in those photographs; people who do know her will be distracted by the vivid pink of her hair, and assume it merely brings out the blue of her eyes.

With luck, the deception will hold.

Himika glances down. There's the bracelet, peeking from under the sleeve of the girl's tracksuit. Silver, subtly embellished. It resembles overlay units. Almost certainly, that makes her the piece from the Xyz dimension – No, she chides herself, best not to make such assumptions. Hiiragi Yuzu's bracelet should have been plain silver, if the bracelet reflects on its home dimension's native summoning method. Moreover, Reiji couldn't remember enough about the Fusion girl's bracelet to describe it, beyond it vaguely matching the description of Hiiragi Yuzu's. Unless they can confirm this girl's origins, no matter how many clues seem to point towards her being from Xyz, Himika won't take it as fact.

The girl is watching her, too, wary and considering. Her hands are wrapped tightly around an object – an apple – which she clutches to her chest protectively. "Are you the leader?" she asks in a voice barely more than a whisper.

"Leader?" echoes the boy. "What do you mean, Ruri?"

"Of the people who are standing against the Academia," Himika cuts in, before anyone can confuse the girl. "You could say that I am, yes."

The girl relaxes slightly. "Okay," she says, mostly to herself. Then she nods, walks to the couch, and sits down, taking a second to compose herself. She's trying to give the impression of strength, of certainty. All Himika sees is a frightened little girl in too-big clothes, clutching an apple like it's the most precious thing in the world. "You want to talk to me?" she asks.

"You're from LDS," interrupts Sakaki Yuuya. "Why should we trust you? You didn't stop them from taking Yuzu away!"

"Yuuya," says Sakaki-san in warning; at the sound of her voice, he flinches, and bolts for the staircase.

Curiously, the girl remains unfazed. Himika glances towards the staircase in time to see a mop of red and green hair duck out of sight. Eavesdropping. They still have to be careful what they say.

"I can't go home, can I?"

...That was exactly the topic Himika wanted to avoid with Sakaki Yuuya still around.

"Oh," says Ruri, taking Himika's silence for confirmation. She turns the apple over in her hands. Sakaki-san and Hiiragi-san drift towards them.

"Ruri," says Hiiragi-san, gently, "can you tell us where you actually come from?"

She's quiet for a long while. Then, in a rush, she says something that vaguely sounds like it contains the word "heart".

They share surreptitious looks. With Sakaki Yuuya eavesdropping, it's as close to an answer as they dare to get. Himika can check the records this evening, to see whether any clues were left in the system that can help identify the girl's homeland properly.

She doubts she will find anything.

They ask more questions, some of which the girl answers, others she avoids; and in turn she carefully probes at them. Tiny things start to build up to a larger picture, but there are still gaps and pieces missing, and no way of getting them while Sakaki Yuuya is nearby.

Yet she can't drag this out forever.

"Ruri-san," Himika says, finally getting to the true motive for her visit, "how did you escape from the Academia?"

The girl goes stiff with fright. She shoots a tiny, furtive glance at the other adults, but drops her gaze when Hiiragi-san gives her a nod of encouragement. It's a strange reaction. What is it this child doesn't want to say?

Himika backtracks. "Were you taken to their... stronghold after your capture?"

Ruri shakes her head. She doesn't meet their eyes.

"So you haven't met any of the other girls?"

Again, a shake of her head.

"Did your captors mention anything about their plans for you?"

She hesitates, then whispers, "They said they needed me alive. That's all."

There's a sudden, furtive scuttling on the staircase, followed by the sound of a door closing upstairs. One glance at Hiiragi-san and Sakaki-san shows that they, too, have realised what this means. Before it had only been a hope, but now they have confirmation: Hiiragi Yuzu is alive. A prisoner, yes, but alive. There is still a chance of recovering her.

"Nobody was coming for me," Ruri continues, all bravado draining from her voice. "I'd hoped, but... I managed to keep them from drugging me again. I thought I remembered the area well enough. I managed to get away. They couldn't catch up – I knew Hea—home better than they did."

"Ruri," says Hiiragi-san; the girl ducks her head lower still, and pretends she hasn't heard him.

"There were too many." She's trembling, but her voice is steadier than Himika expects it to be. "In the end I couldn't outrun them – they almost had me cornered – and then... There was a light. Just over the edge. I thought... if I went through that light then the Academia wouldn't get to me anymore." The dam breaks; her shoulders hitch with barely restrained sobs. "I just wanted to be with my comrades again," she says. "And then I woke up, and I was here, and I don't know what happened at all – !"

Hiiragi-san looks stricken; Sakaki-san is shaken, but hiding it better. Himika keeps any trace of her own emotions safely locked away. Instead she observes the girl. If this were a ploy for sympathy, an attempt to distract them, she would expect... noise. But this is the quiet, stifled crying of somebody who can't afford to be noticed, who doesn't even want people to realise her distress.

Hiiragi-san reaches out a hand to her in an attempt at comfort. Ruri shrinks away from him.

They'll be lucky to get anything more out of her.

What to say to a child whose entire life is in tatters? Himika deliberates, leans forwards, and promises, "Once the Academia is defeated, we will do everything in our power to return you to where you belong."

Ruri says nothing. She stares at her hands in dazed silence. Himika wonders if the girl even heard her, but eventually she nods, slow and tired and helpless.

Then she abruptly flees.

Sakaki-san is on her feet at once, staring after the child in mute distress. She looks as though she wants to follow, to offer what support and comfort she can, but indecision paralyses her.

"...she tried to kill herself," whispers Hiiragi-san. "What did they – "

"It must have seemed like the only way." Sakaki-san sits back down, unsteady and shaken, and folds her hands in her lap. "That poor girl."

"If she dies," Hiiragi-san says, his voice rough with despair, "if Ruri dies, what will happen to my daughter?"

Himika says nothing. She has to collect her thoughts first. "It might be that the girls are still useful tools, even without the fourth," she suggests. "We have no idea what they need these girls for."

"_Say it_." The tone is harsh, harsher than she thought him capable of. "They'll kill her, won't they. If she's no longer useful to them, they'll kill her."

Whether it's true or not... But Ruri's friend might be dead. Ruri's words from before all but confirm it, if the girl had truly hoped to reunite with her comrades in death. If Academia would kill Ruri's friend, there is nothing that stops them from killing the pieces when they become worthless.

Himika looks away and concedes, "It is possible."

"Ruri doesn't want to die," Sakaki-san points out. "Her first thought was to escape. It was only when she had no other options that she – that she tried to do what she did. She won't try again."

Hiiragi-san buries his head in his hands. "She will," he whispers. "If they find her again. If she's in that situation again. Ruri would do it."

"But the other girls – "

"Hiiragi-san is right."

"You don't know that," Sakaki-san retorts.

She does. She can see herself in this child. It's the choice Himika would make. If it could protect her sons, if it was the only thing she could do to protect this world, she would consider it. Even if it condemns a handful of strangers to the same fate.

Himika looks at Sakaki-san. Truly, she cannot think of another way. From the expression on Sakaki-san's face, the other woman is coming to the same conclusion.

Sakaki-san stands up. She crosses to the kitchen and briskly, purposefully, fills the electric kettle – but doesn't prepare a single mug for tea. Instead she uses the cover of the boiling water to muffle her footsteps as she checks that neither of the children are eavesdropping again. She looks across at Himika and nods.

Himika turns back to Hiiragi-san. "There is one thing we can do," she says, and quietly explains the same plan she'd outlined to Sakaki Yoko – albeit without the suggestion of suppressing their memories as well. Hiiragi-san remains silent throughout. Himika almost preferred Sakaki-san's interruptions.

Eventually, Hiiragi-san speaks. "And it'll keep them both safe?"

"As safe as we can manage." Himika glances between the other two adults. If nothing else, she can count on their feelings for the missing girl. And Hiiragi Shuzou already cares about Ruri. Even if it's just as a shadow of his daughter, a way of atoning for failing to protect his own child, he cares. "It can be undone the moment we recover your daughter."

"...No choice but to keep walking," Hiiragi-san says, and it's such a strange thing to say that Himika and Sakaki-san both look at him askance. He exhales shakily. Nods. "Okay."

* * *

_5 April_

It was, they had agreed, much too late to take any action that day. Better to give Ruri time to recover from recounting the events of her escape than to rush her straight into another harrowing situation. The longer they leave it, the more Himika risks the truth extending beyond their cabal of five; but some concessions always have to be made.

One day, though. One day more is all they can afford.

They have enough time, now, to prepare. They have a better idea, now, of what they face,

and how to counter the threat in the future.

But for now, everything hinges on keeping Ruri safe. She must ensure that the girl is adequately prepared for playing the role of Hiiragi Yuzu, no matter what that entails.

No matter what.

It's too late to start doubting their choices. Just thirty minutes remain until the others are scheduled to arrive. Mechanically, she shuffles the pages covering her desk into order, then pulls out two fresh pieces of paper.

_Reiji, _she writes.

Then she pauses. There is so much she wants to say. So much he needs to know. She can only hope that they have enough time for her to guide him. That what she fears will not happen. She puts pen to paper again. This will have to be enough.

_If this letter is in your hands, then two things must have happened. Firstly, I am no longer with you. Secondly, the girl known as Hiiragi Yuzu is once again in danger. Her real name is Ruri. I suspect that she originates from the Xyz dimension but could not verify her origins._

_Yes, I lied to you. I will not ask for your forgiveness. It was all in the interests of keeping as many people as possible safe, and of keeping you and Reira safe, in case the Academia started searching Standard for the girl that evaded them._

_Hiiragi Shuzou and Sakaki Yoko know about the different dimensions. They are our allies in the effort to keep this girl from the Academia. You can trust them._

She doesn't sign the letter. There's no need. Reiji will surely understand. The second letter is harder to write, though. In the days after Hiiragi Yuzu's disappearance, Reiji had discussed with her the options of more advanced training for Reira. Now, with one of the pieces once again within LDS' reach, it looks less and less optional.

It's not what they want. None of this is what anyone wants. But it's what is needed.

_Reira,_

_If this letter has come to you, then neither Reiji nor myself are in a position to receive it. Take the information I enclose to the current leader of Standard's defences, if they can be trusted. __**Stay alive.**_

She wants to say more; but what is there to say? It's necessary, but that doesn't make it justified, and she has to shoulder that anyway. Has she said enough? Done enough? None of the words she wants to write are adequate.

Carefully, she adds one last line: _I am sorry, Reira._

Sorry. An empty, hollow word. It doesn't matter if it's in pursuit of the girl or of the greater goal: sooner or later, Academia's war will spill over into Standard. She will consciously, if not gladly, make the choice to put Reira's future welfare over his current happiness. At least this way he'll be alive to see it (she hopes, she hopes both her sons survive this war).

She puts the two letters with her notes, and seals them in a manilla envelope. Later, she will pass this to Nakajima's keeping. He was not her first choice – his affiliation with LDS puts him at risk – but giving it to Hiiragi Shuzou is too dangerous, and Himika does not trust Sakaki Yoko. Nakajima is the only person she can rely on. Even to prioritise this information over Himika's own life.

At last, the appointed time arrives. The bustle of activity around LDS starts to die down to a simmering hum. There are still enough people around to warrant care, though, so Akaba Himika stands at one of the side entrances to the building. They don't need people seeing the girl.

She doesn't have to wait long. Her allies of circumstance arrive right on time, with both children in tow. Hiiragi Shuzou struggles to meet her eyes, but even with his doubts, he is here all the same.

"Dr. Ikeda is one of my most trusted staff," Himika assures Hiiragi-san and Sakaki-san, as she leads the group towards the medical wing of LDS. The children are more or less oblivious to what they are saying. Ruri shuffles along, observing everything, watching for any sign of a trap; Sakaki Yuuya stays close to her, eyes hidden under his goggles. "She has worked on... delicate cases before."

"Yuuya knows not to mention her real name," Sakaki-san says in a low voice, careful that the children don't overhear her. "We can trust him to keep up the pretence. He... really doesn't trust LDS to keep her safe, after what happened to Yuzu-chan."

"Good," Himika says. The other adults look taken aback at the thin smile that spreads across her lips. She walks on. No need to explain. Children so young shouldn't have to learn such lessons in trust, but with what lies ahead, it's an important lesson to learn.

Hiiragi-san speaks up. "Are we doing the right thing?"

Nobody can offer an answer. Himika doesn't have time for believing in 'the right thing'. There's only what they can do, and what they can afford to give up.

Ruri enters the medical wing like she's preparing to face a battle, not a doctor. Sakaki Yuuya trails in behind her, a reluctant ally. The adults wait outside. Ostensibly, it is so that Ruri does not get overwhelmed, but they all know that these tests are little more than a smokescreen.

"I'll go first," Sakaki-san says quietly, leaving no room for argument. She glances at Hiiragi-san, who hesitates only for a moment before nodding at her in reply. Though it rankles, slightly, that they would think she might betray them at so late a juncture, Himika respects them for it too. She overplayed her hand when she suggested that Sakaki-san ought to have her memories rewritten.

"Please, through here." Himika leads Sakaki-san to an adjoining room, where two machines await them. At Himika's direction, Sakaki-san removes her hair clasp and jewellery and sets a visor in place over her eyes. This won't take long. She only needs a small amount of information. Enough for the procedure to create replacement memories for Ruri.

Several years ago, when Reiji was no older than Reira is now, the then President of Leo Corp funded research into a certain type of technology. Technology pertaining to memory. That research was soon abandoned due to ethical concerns, or so she had believed.

She'd been so naïve to believe it.

When they'd discovered the technology hidden away in the depths of LDS, in the months after that man's abandonment of Standard, she'd justified keeping it in the name of protecting their dimension. She had envisioned using it against Academia spies, to find out their goals and their aims, to strip them of any knowledge they'd obtained – perhaps to turn them away from the enemy entirely. Lofty ideals, in the end, nothing like what she now has to do. She had never envisioned using it on a scared little girl trapped a world away from home. She had never envisioned using it on herself.

If only LDS had found the girl first.

Himika brings the machine to a halt. This should be enough. "You may remove the visor now," she says.

Former Pro the woman may be, but Sakaki-san cannot quite disguise the naked relief on her face when she realises nothing has happened to her memories – of either girl.

"I'm going to check on the children," says Sakaki-san.

Himika nods acquiescence, still checking through the borrowed memories (she hadn't realised Sakaki-san was, in essence, Hiiragi Yuzu's mentor; her concern for the child makes much more sense now). Satisfied with what they contain, she glances out the door, down the corridor, to where Sakaki-san has reunited with Hiiragi-san and is talking to him in quiet whispers. An expression of profound relief appears on Hiiragi-san's face.

That expression is gone by the time he steps into the room, replaced by the same subdued fatigue he has worn ever since she met with them last Friday. Himika repeats the procedure in silence, steeling herself against Hiiragi-san's despair. She thinks, again, of Reiji. Of how easily she could have lost him. She cannot allow her empathy for Hiiragi-san to show.

"Could we have done anything differently?" Hiiragi-san asks after the process is over.

"No," she replies. There was nothing they could have done. Not with the knowledge they had then.

It's not the answer Hiiragi-san wanted to hear. It's the only answer she can give.

_Damn you, Leo._

She rejoins Sakaki-san in the corridor, Hiiragi-san trailing behind. Now they can only wait. Inside the medical room, Sakaki Yuuya hops down from a stool, rubbing slightly at his eyes – for once, they are not covered by his goggles – and nods encouragement at Ruri. The girl steps forward and reluctantly allows Dr. Ikeda to shine a torch into her eyes. Her hands worry the hem of her tracksuit.

"She panicked over one of the tests," Sakaki-san explains quietly. Her voice wavers between pride and regret. "Yuuya thought she wouldn't be so scared if he did them too."

Just as they'd discussed last night. At least one gamble has paid off.

"There's just one last test we need to run," says Dr. Ikeda, leading the children out of the room and towards where the machines wait. Dr. Ikeda doesn't know who the girl really is, doesn't know what this is truly for, believes only that the suppression is to help Hiiragi Yuzu overcome the trauma of her kidnap. And she knows that the girl has to remain unaware of the machines' true purpose. "It'll help us check whether the drugs those people used on you have caused any lasting problems."

But the moment she sees them, Ruri's paranoia reasserts itself. "I'm _fine_," she tries to protest, tries to squirm away from the machines.

It's Hiiragi-san, of all people, who comes to their rescue. He kneels down and looks right at her. "Those drugs made it difficult for you to remember me and Yuuya," he reminds the girl. "You're still having trouble remembering Maiami, aren't you?"

It takes a moment to understand what he's saying. When Ruri glances at Dr. Ikeda and bites her lip, Himika realises that this must be their cover story.

"I'll be fine," Ruri insists, but uncertain now.

"Some drugs can influence you for days. They could make you a danger to yourself, or to others," Himika says, turning her eyes towards Sakaki Yuuya as she speaks. Sakaki Yuuya, who looks like Ruri's dead comrade. "I would not ask you to do anything I am not willing to do myself."

Ruri drops her gaze. Her abortive escape attempts die away. "...What do I need to do?"

She listens quietly as Dr. Ikeda explains the procedure, watches carefully as Sakaki Yuuya steps forwards to serve as guinea pig once again. Goggles off, pendant off, placed on a tray at the side of the bed; visor replacing the goggles over his eyes, as Dr. Ikeda directs him to lay back on the narrow mattress in demonstration.

Then, when it comes for Ruri to do the same, they hit another snag.

"No," says Ruri, one hand straying to the back of her head. "No, you can't make me."

Hiiragi-san startles. Does she know? Has she realised what will truly happen? The look passes between them all.

"It's only so that we can fit the visor on your head properly," Dr. Ikeda says, patient in her ignorance. "It won't work if your hair is tied up."

Ruri hesitates for a long while. At last, she reaches up and takes the ribbon out of her hair with trembling hands, then winds it through the fingers of her left hand, a stubborn set to her jaw. Himika would much rather remove it from her entirely. Items of sentimental significance can cause a hindrance to the procedure. But Ruri is looking at Dr. Ikeda and daring her to make comment.

Dr. Ikeda is wisely silent on the matter.

Then Ruri turns to look at them, eyes shining with such terrified, fragile trust that Himika almost regrets the necessity of it all. It's a relief when the visor finally hides those eyes from view.

After that, everything proceeds without a hitch.

Suppression is the quietest, gentlest procedure. It's not like the procedure for erasing memories, which can cause irreparable damage to the subject's mind if wielded imprecisely. Memory suppression has been developed to not cause undue stress on the subject's mind, because the memories are merely being tucked away, out of sight; in more complex cases, a veneer of false memories will be put in place, to create the illusion of stability.

To her knowledge, nobody has ever used this technology on such a grand scale before.

The girl's memories of being drugged are among the first to be suppressed. The process can cause drowsiness, and the last thing they need is for the girl to panic out of the fear they're drugging her.

The twin machines whirr softly, soothingly, and smooth out the other memories that cannot be kept. Then quietly, secretly, the girl's machine starts to weave together snapshots of Hiiragi Yuzu's life. Himika has done her work well enough. Dr. Ikeda doesn't notice anything out of place. Then again, Himika is one of only a handful of people in LDS who know how to operate the machines.

Using the memories borrowed from Sakaki-san, Hiiragi-san, and Sakaki Yuuya, the girl's own mind creates a new history based on the information provided to her. The false memories won't hold up under intense scrutiny, Himika knows. Neither can they create a complete picture. But they can trust that they've put in enough safeguards that the girl won't realise there's a disconnect between what she thinks she remembers and the blank spaces they can't entirely fill.

The belief that any muddying of her memories is because of the drugs her abductors injected her with.

The compulsion to re-dye her hair whenever the roots start to show again, before she realises her hair isn't the ginger her memories insist it should be.

She would have preferred to input a second compulsion – keep your bracelet hidden; keep it out of sight – but for all she knows, the bracelet is the thing that saved the girl's life. Keeping her alive is vital to reclaiming the real Hiiragi Yuzu in the future. They cannot separate her from such a safeguard.

The girl's mouth opens a fraction. She whispers something that nobody can hear. Her fingers slacken, and the ribbon slides from between them and puddles on the floor.

It's over.

Rather, the procedure is over. Dr. Ikeda is still busy checking for traces of the drugs – or for any sign of a tracker hidden on the girl's body – but the important work is now done. Now all they have to do is to see how successful the effort has been.

Sakaki Yuuya stirs first. He mumbles something and reaches for the visor.

"Slowly," Dr. Ikeda says, moving across to him. "How are you feeling, Sakaki-kun?"

As soon as Dr. Ikeda removes the visor from his eyes, he's casting around for a glimpse of the girl. "How's Yuzu?" he asks with no hesitation. Sakaki-san exhales in shaky relief. Next to her, Hiiragi-san is staring at the girl with an expression of bitter regret.

It's a difficult act he will have to uphold. But circumstances have made him the only person who can protect the girl— Himika glances back at the child before she too starts to regret their choice.

Now the girl is starting to stir as well. As the visor is lifted from her face, she blinks, bleary-eyed and groggy. The fingers of her left hand flex, searching for something that isn't there.

"Yuzu!" exclaims the Sakaki boy, tumbling from his narrow mattress in his eagerness to get to the girl and almost tripping over his own feet. "Yuzu, are you..."

She tilts her head towards him. There's the smallest trace of a frown on her lips, despite her drowsiness. "Yuu—" she says, then hesitates, as though a different name is attempting to claw its way out of her mouth.

But the moment passes. "Yuuya," whispers Hiiragi Yuzu.

And she smiles, closes her eyes, and drifts back into a quiet slumber, her searching fingers curled tight in the hand of her childhood friend.


End file.
